Ah, college. A time of growth, change, and 2:00 AM poutine adventures. Another huge part of college is finally living away from home and potentially living with roommates. How exciting! Or not. While you will probably like a lot of the people you end up living with in college, you’re also likely to have some college horror stories that will make you want to live alone.
I’ve definitely had my share, and I know a lot of people who’ve had theirs as well. I’ve compiled a list of some of the horror stories I’ve heard. If this is happening to you, my advice will be at the end of the article! (All stories are anonymous, and mine may—or may not—be thrown into the mix as well!)
1. The OTHER Roommates
“My issue wasn’t with my actual roommates, they are lovely. Turns out we were sharing our house with a nice family of RATS! They terrorized us for almost the entire school year. We came back from the holidays to a house full of rat poop! Our landlord didn’t care and, needless to say, we moved out as soon as our lease was up.”
2. The Scammer
“Hang tight, because this is a ride. We needed another housemate ASAP and found a girl through Facebook. Signed the lease, seemed normal. When it came time to start paying 2 months later, she just didn’t pay. Came up with a bunch of excuses for 2 MONTHS about why she hadn’t paid rent. Used the whole ‘cheques are in the mail’ line several times…”
“Our landlord sent an eviction notice and when we confronted this girl, she GHOSTED us! Haven’t heard from her since, because she blocked us on everything. We found a new housemate but this other girl still owes us 3 months of rent. The kicker is that she illegally subletted two rooms in the house over the summer and pocketed the money.”
3. The Hoarder
“One of my roommates was a total b*tch. She had a big fight with another roommate and the next morning when I came downstairs, all the dishes were gone. The coffee maker, toaster oven, pots and pans too. Turns out, this crazy girl was hoarding them all in her room, along with other small things she had stolen from us.”
4. The Unexpected Visitor
“One of my roommates had just started dating this boy and I wasn’t a huge fan of him. About a month into their relationship, I was cooking in the kitchen. I heard someone outside our front door punching in the key code to the house and in walks her boyfriend, who apparently now knew our security code.”
5. The Over-sharer
“In first year, I had a suite style dorm. There were 4 of us, split into two rooms. One of my roommates, on day two, had really loud and aggressive sex all night. The next morning, she showed me all the bruises and hickeys she had. Shortly after, she kicked out her roommate, had sex on her roommates bed, and then threw up on it.”
6. The Sticky Situation
“I have a roommate with a peanut allergy who told me it wasn’t airborne and that I could cook with peanuts. I made peanut butter cookies for my friend one day and she ran around the house saying she couldn’t breathe and proceeded to ignore me for a week because she now decided it was airborne and chose to not tell me.”
7. 10/10 Would Not Rent
“In my second year, I moved into a house with three other people. We got along pretty well for the most part but the biggest problem we had was rent payments. For a few months, one of my roommates would be constantly late with rent and kept coming up with excuses. It was causing a lot of tension in the house and with the landlord. At the end of our lease, our landlord said she wouldn’t rent to us anymore and we ended up going our separate ways.”
8. The Disappearing Act
“Our completely normal roommate one day just randomly started acting super strange. She was convinced we hated her and accused us of all kinds of things, no matter how many times we reassured her. Then, without warning, she just moved out halfway through the year. Still confused!”
9. Party Gone Wrong
“My roommates held a party in our house and it was an absolute disaster. I was trying to study in my room but my house became filled with drunk students. To my horror, I heard a massive smash. I went downstairs to see people taking turns to punch holes in our wall. By the end of the party, the porch, kitchen sink and bathtub were all filled with vomit.”
10. The Uninvited Giant
“One night, I was home alone when I heard a knock at the door. Assuming it was one of my roommates coming home, I answered to an individual much bigger than I. Apparently, he was staying in our home that weekend, which was a complete shock to me. After just paying to have the house cleaned, I was not anticipating guests. To my disappointment and frustration, I woke up to an extremely disgusting and smelly bathroom. Ask your roommates permission before inviting guests to your home!”
11. Liar Liar, Pants on Fire
“My roommate had the basement room of our house and had her boyfriend over constantly. He ended up pretty much living at our house, which was annoying. They smoked ALL the time! They constantly lied and said they weren’t smoking in the house, but we knew they were. He didn’t pitch in at all with anything around the house, ate all our food, and one day, we actually SAW him in the house smoking. After repeatedly telling us he never smoked in the house. She ended up breaking the lease mid-way through the year and taking her boyfriend with her.”
12. The Kitchen Surprise
“Walked past the kitchen and saw my roommate having sex on the counter. Enough said.”
How to Fix Roommate Issues
Depending on the severity of the problem, there are certain steps you can take. If it hasn’t gotten too bad yet, I strongly suggest organizing a time for all roommates to talk in person. Most problems can be solved with communication.
If that doesn’t work, or if the problems are too extreme, visit your campus housing resource centre (most have one) and get some professional advice. If you have a good landlord, they may be able to help as well.
If all else fails, stick it out till the end of the lease and then move or hope that they move. Most people will encounter an annoying roommate at some point. One day, you will laugh about it! And if you’re worried about future roommate horror stories, try to take some preventative measures.